Chapter 17 : Demon King Lun Ri (1)
On the battle stage, surrounded by spectators, Xu Hui was hell-bent on destroying Li Qi Ye. He wanted to pull out his muscles, flay his skin, and smash his body into a thousand pieces.[1]
Nan Huai Ren and Protector Mo wanted to believe in Li Qi Ye. Although the chance of him winning was slim, he had continuously performed miracles in the past.
“Hey, can he really beat Senior Xu?”
Ever since Li Qi Ye went through the Chaotic Heart Forest in one go, the disciples of the Nine Saint Demon Gate considered him as a real opponent.
An older senior shook his head:
“The difference between them is too great. It is a mortal versus a Heaven’s Mandate cultivator. Li Qi Ye wouldn’t be able to win unless he was somehow given an Immortal Emperor’s true energy, but even that isn’t realistic. Even with it, he wouldn’t have enough blood force to activate the energy.”
“That is true, a mortal cannot activate a single usage of an Immortal Emperor’s true energy. The ‘Fierce Slaughter Sword’ technique of Junior Xu is overly powerful from its mysterious truths. A life or death battle with that technique would not bode well for his opponent.”
A disciple that had previously sparred with Xu Hui offered his opinion.
“Don’t forget about his Silver Eagle Physique as well. Although it is only a Houtian rank physique, it has considerable speed. If you combine both his speed and power, you can say that his offensive power is nearly unmatched in our generation.”[2]
Cultivators valued physiques very highly. They ranked from weakest to strongest as the following:
Mortal Physique, Houtian Physique, Xiantian Physique, Emperor Physique, Saint Physique, and lastly, Immortal Physique.
The majority of the world has the Mortal Physique, including Li Qi Ye. It is the weakest both in terms of physical strength and blood force.
Xu Hui roared; sword energies rotated around his bodied in an upward manner. They became a giant, impenetrable fortress of visible, radiant swords, all pointing towards Li Qi Ye. The technique served as a defensive measure as he was channeling his energy.
“Open!”
A heavenly sword came out from Xu Hui’s mouth; it split into eight different heavenly swords. These swords were gigantic, towering at two hundred meters each. A single strike could split the earth itself.
“Fierce Slaughter Sword, Heavenly Sword Yan Jin!”
A disciple couldn’t help but exclaim their jealousy and envy.
“Xu Hui’s true energy is formed by Yan Jin’s Heavenly Jade with a complete magical pattern. Heavenly Sword Yan Jin is for offense and Fierce Slaughter Sword for defense. Within our generation, he is nearly unbeatable. “
Witnessing the scene, Protector Mo was humbled. Xu Hui proved to be more powerful than expected, especially when he has the possession of the Yan Jin sword. Protector Mo himself wouldn’t be able to pierce through Xu Hui’s defenses. After his failed attack, the Yan Jing sword formation would immediate counter attack at the time when he is the most vulnerable.
Xu Hui maneuvered his swords at Li Qi Ye, and maniacally yelled:
“Come here, you bastard. Today, I will slice you into a thousand pieces!”
“Phoo, phoo!”
Li Qi Ye spat into his palms and then rubbed them together; this rather crude gesture was completely different from his normally elegant demeanor.
“A thousand pieces?”
Li Qi Ye retorted.
“You, alone, is not enough. Let me beat you into a pig’s head; even your parents will not recognize who you are after I am done.”
Li Qi Ye slowly took out the Serpent Punishing Stick.
Nan Huai Ren almost went unconscious from the scene; wasn’t that the fireplace stick in the grand chamber of the Cleansing Incense Ancient Sect? He was expecting Li Qi Ye to use the “Invisible Dual Blades” technique; maybe its miraculous power would help him tie the fight.
However, Li Qi Ye wasn’t using the blades, but a wooden stick instead… The Yan Jin sword would cut that thing in half in a second.
Protector Mo’s only thought at this moment was to save Li Qi Ye’s life the moment it was in danger, no matter the cost.
“Using a wooden stick to fight against the Yan Jin sword? Could it be an Immortal Emperor grade weapon?”
Yu He squinted his eyes and opened his heavenly vision technique in order to see through the wooden stick. He was, indeed, worried that the stick was a treasure made by an Immortal Emperor.
However, despite his numerous techniques and concentration, the wooden stick was just a wooden stick. There were no magical enchantments, nor cultivation techniques to utilize. A wooden stick versus a Heaven’s Mandate level sword; Yu He was at a loss for words.
Protector Hua was not as skeptical as Yu He; he only wanted to witness Li Qi Ye’s death.
Li Qi Ye pointed his Serpent Punishing Stick at Xu Hui like a ruffian, and said:
“Little boy, come here; let this grandpa shatter your butt!”
“I’ll kill you!”
Xu Hui screamed as the eight heavenly swords became one sword. Straight from the sky, the Yan Jin sword, surrounded by a gigantic energy, swung down towards Li Qi Ye. Its path burned with fire; the battle stage now bathed in a sea of flames.
“This is the end!”
Nan Huai Ren turned around, not wanting to see the result of this monstrous strike. It seemed like Xu Hui wanted to finish this in one move, and he used his most powerful technique.
“Good!”
Li Qi Ye paid no mind. He screamed in a strange manner and jumped forward with a random motion, swinging his stick.
The scene that everyone was expecting did not happen.
The Serpent Punishing Stick met the weakest part of the Yan Jin sword during its trajectory. The sword’s energy dissipated, and the physical sword plunged to the ground; it was as if it was bitten by a poisonous snake, unable to obey Xu Hui’s command.
“Little boy, I will beat you into a pig’s head!”
Xu Hui hadn’t regained his composure, but Li Qi Ye was already in front of him. The stick passed through his sword fortress and rained blows directly onto his body.
“Die!”
Xu Hui did not retreat; he once again gathered his sword energy and surrounded Li Qi Ye with it.
“Gather!”
However, to no avail, his Virtuous Paragon sword technique had no effect. The Serpent Punishing Stick continuously struck at the formation’s weakest points, and he successfully negated the incoming blows. Finally, it struck Xu Hui’s face, and that one blow made Xu Hui redden with blood. He became disoriented; stars in his eyes and thunder in his ears.[3]
“Bam, Bam, Bam!”
In the blink of an eye, Li Qi Ye had pummeled Xu Hui ten times, all of them hitting the meridians and his weakest spots. Xu Hui was like a snake without its skeletal body; unable to stand up. His blood force was in disarray, and his cultivation techniques were unusable. He fell to the ground with a busted face.
The Serpent Punishing Stick was not a heavenly treasure; it was only a regular wooden stick. Hitting a snake required one to aim for its head; this was true for the blows struck by Li Qi Ye as well. They have to hit the weak points and defensive holes of the opponents. Unless the opponent had reached the Heaven’s Primal stage, they could not escape the blows for he had not perfected his own understanding of the defensive mysterious truths. One of the requirements for Heaven’s Primal is a rebirth of one’s body and the understanding of techniques as well as a body protection aura, rendering the Serpent Punishing Stick useless. However, since Xu Hui was far away from Heaven’s Primal, the wooden stick was his prime nemesis.
Keep in mind that even Immortal Emperor Min Ren was beaten by the stick, repeatedly; the same applied for all of his strongest generals, including Nine Saint Virtuous Paragon.
The Serpent Punishing Stick was a regular branch grown from a small tree in the Demon Forest, basked by demonic aura throughout the ages. However, this made it anything but ordinary; the Demon Forest was one of the few Ancient Forbidden Dangers.
The stick also had another property that made it appealing to Li Qi Ye. No matter how many times a person is struck by it, they would not die from the blows. It was a stick specifically meant for punishment and teaching; this made it very appropriate for Li Qi Ye when dealing with the powerful geniuses under his tutelage.
“Bang, Bang, Bang!”
After Xu Hui had fallen unconscious, to the ground, Li Qi Ye did not show any mercy. He kept on striking the body of Xu Hui. His body was now filled with wounds, no one could tell if he was dead or alive.
This scene jolted the spectators. Yu He, once again, activated his mysterious eyes to look at the Serpent Punishing Stick, but he still couldn’t find anything special about it.
Bao: I just spent 40 minutes translating about a normal wooden stick, but this is why I like this story, the little things about his past are interesting to me. Let me know if you guys felt the same or maybe hated it.
Nahct: And I just spent 30 minutes reading about a wooden stick. Wooo~
Nerebear: It adds a nice touch of sentimentality and history to it that I like.
[1] Common Chinese saying of wanting to really really kill someone; four words total in the Chinese version
[2] Houtian and Xiantian are very common terms for Xian Xia so I chose to leave it as source
[3] Common poetic description for a blow to the head or disorientation